Last Sunday I took a walk around the Pitmain Estate on the higher ground between Newtonmore and Kingussie. There is a deer fence which runs between the ugly, and recently upgraded track, and Loch Gynack which prevents people from reaching the loch shore. This area could, and should, provide a high quality recreational experience…
SNH are currently consulting on a new plan for the Invereshie and Inshriach National Nature Reserve (see here). The NNR covers the land between the road up the east side of Glen Feshie (and the moor of Feshie) and the fine ridge which extends from Carn Ban Mor over Sgurr Gaoith to Creag Dubh. The…
On the surface the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is quite transparent about the complaints it receives, reporting on these to the Government through its Annual Report. Below the surface, however, there is evidence to show that the LLTNPA is covering up what is really going on. In this post I will take…
James Stuart, Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, has publicly stated that he is committed to ensuring the National Park operates with greater transparency. One of the things I have been lobbying him on in the last year was for the LLTNPA to start publishing ALL responses to information requests…
I returned from the Vanoise to the depressing news that a white tailed eagle had disappeared (see here) and SNH had issued a license to cull ravens in Perthshire (see here for fine piece by Chris Townsend) or (here). (You can sign the petition to SNH against the raven cull here). While both events took…
Just like our National Parks, the Vanoise National Park has a duty to preserve the cultural heritage. A while back they surveyed all the traditional buildings in the area and found over 200 building design features that had evolved over centuries and which helped people survive and indeed flourish in a hostile mountain environment. Those…
Almost everywhere you go in the Haute Maurienne is evidence of community use of the forests which cover much of the valley sides. Locals use wood to heat their houses and in construction. The contrast with Scotland is striking: how many such wood stores do you see in the Argyll Forest Park or in Crianlarich?…
Just over a week ago Cameron McNeish sent me this photo of a sign he had come across while walking on the RSPB Nature Reserve at Loch Insh near Tromie Bridge in the Cairngorms National Park. The sign was clearly against the Scottish Outdoor Access Code – and in breach of our access legislation…
At the end of my first week in the Vanoise the weather improved slightly and we skied past the Fond d’Aussois hut which is only staffed in the summer but has a winter room. Outside the front entrance, which was reached through a corridor of snow, was an immaculate composting toilet. In the…
Our National Parks Authorities are two small cogs in the much wider structures which govern life in Scotland and subject to similar pressures and influences as other such organisations, whether austerity or the ever increasing trend towards centralisation of government in Scotland. Many of the comments made by speakers at the “Act as if we…
I am back from a couple of weeks ski touring in the Vanoise and, having taken a break from parkswatch last week, thought I would share this week a few things Scotland’s National Parks could learn from the Vanoise. The Vanoise National Park is the oldest in France, created in 1963, and consists on an…
I have been in the Haute Maurienne, in the Vanoise National Park, the last week on a two week ski touring trip. There has been a lot of snow, far more than recent winters (see here), and what is left is still impressive. Unfortunately, from the ski touring point of view, our arrival coincided…
A couple of weeks ago I stopped at at one of the two laybys on the new section of A9 dual carriageway between Kincraig and Dalraddy. Its been nicely landscaped and provided with a bin, unlike the laybys on the A82, thanks to Highland Council but is too close to the road to be a…
(This post first appeared as a letter in the Helensburgh Advertiser on Thursday 5th April) As the Loch Lomond and Trosssachs National Park Authority have now belatedly applied Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) to the decimated area in Drumkinnon Bay is it not time that the Park were more proactive in protecting other areas within the Park…
Just over three weeks ago, after deciding to retreat from a climb in Glencoe due to the wind, I decided to take a look at the Allt Choire Chaorach hydro scheme opposite the Auchessan schemes in Glen Dochart (see here). Within a couple of hundred metres I witnessed two extremes of how the Loch Lomond and…
While over the last couple of years I have frequently raised concerns about the management of the natural environment at Cairngorm, the absence of any proper plan for the area and the proposals for yet more inappropriate developments and the financial position and practices of Natural Retreats, parkswatch has so far not commented on their…
Anyone passing through the Drumochter, even in snow, should be able to see the scars on the hillside between the summit of the pass and north Drumochter lodge but far fewer people are aware of the scars and failed restoration hidden behind the shelter belts on either side of this. Its taken me six months…
The response of many outdoor recreationists to the Drumlean decision (see here) was to highlight the hyprocrisy of the LLTNPA who while defending access rights with the one hand were undermining them with the other. These contradictions in the LLTNPA’s position were nicely exposed in an article in TGO magazine (see here). I believe people…
When Highlands and Islands Enterprise sold Cairngorm Mountain Ltd to Natural Assets Investment Ltd they did so on the basis that its operational arm, Natural Retreats had the knowledge, competence and financial strength to bring new ideas and new investment to Cairngorm. In the last week further evidence has emerged to show how laughable those…
For the first time, in over two years of campaigning, I can report that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has done the job it was set up to do and, by pursuing the access problems at the Drumlean estate all the way to the Court of Session, they have done everyone in…
In a major embarrassment for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority the Lennox Herald reported over 118 trees were chopped down last week on land which the Park manages and provided an excellent photo of the damage (see here). While its unclear at present who was responsible for this, the extent of the…
Yesterday the Cairngorms National Park Authority called in a planning application (see here) for a dry ski slope by the Coire Cas Car Park at Cairngorm which had been lodged at Highland Council by Cairngorm Mountain Ltd, whose registered address is now Wilmslow in Cheshire. The idea of a dry ski slope here was originally…
The Allt Essan and Auchessan hydro schemes lie on the north side of Glen Dochart south of the Munros Meall Glas and Sgiath Chuil. Both were approved by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority in December 2014 but the Auchessan design was subseqently amended in 2015 (see here and here). While both schemes were…
In the Battle for Scotland’s Countryside last week (see here), David Hayman presented a brief history of the struggle for access rights leading up to our access legislation and then looked at three subsequent access disputes. On first viewing, I was a bit disappointed with how these were covered: the film of David Hayman entering…
The existing Cairngorms Forest Framework is ten years old and the Cairngorms National Park Authority have been consulting on a Cairngorms Forest Strategy to replace it (see here). The document sets out the “strategic direction on future forest management and the restoration of woodlands in the Cairngorms National Park over the next two decades” with…